There is nothing brave about suicide

This is my latest post, and it’s a difficult subject where I say some difficult things about a difficult situation.

It’s going to be very easy to accuse me of being judgmental or mean or whatever, because I’m not, like so many others, lining up to congratulate a woman for deciding to kill herself. You might find that rather rude of me, but I find it thoughtless, reckless, and disturbing that so many people are running around calling her ‘brave’ and ‘dignified’ for choosing to poison herself.

I want her to live longer, whereas the rest of society seems to agree that her life has no meaning and there would be no purpose in her living it. Worse still, when we call it ‘dignified’ and ‘courageous’ to kill yourself because of a cancer diagnosis, we are directly attacking people who get cancer and don’t kill themselves.

You think I’m exaggerating? Well what other possible conclusion can be drawn? If it is ‘dying with dignity’ to take a pill and slip away rather than to fight the cancer until it kills you, then, by extension, it must be undignified to forgo the pill and fight the cancer until it kills you. Are we really prepared to see things in that way?

There are so many problems with our cultural suicide worship. So many problems with euthanasia and the way the practice perverts the medical establishment and confuses the public conscience. So many, many problems. This doesn’t even scratch the surface, but it’s the best I can do.

Read it here.